Tom Cruise and his crew took San Diego’s breath away yesterday as the premiere of the 36-years-in-the-making sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, opened in spectacular fashion at the USS Midway Museum.
It “takes a lot more than fancy flying” to craft a truly memorable movie about aviators, and if the early reviews touching down are any indication, it’s clear that everyone involved in the sequel never lost that loving feeling for the original film, with critics already calling it one of the year’s best movies with some also rating it as one of the best sequels ever.
The special event was attended by Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jack Schumacher, Jake Picking, Manny Jacinto, Lyliana Way, Jerry Bruckheimer, Christopher McQuarrie and Joseph Kosinski, to name but a few.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion), from a screenplay written by Christopher McQuarrie, Eric Warren, and Ehren Kruger, Top Gun: Maverick falls back into formation with top Navy top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster”, the son of Maverick’s late best friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose”. Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
And yesterday’s San Diego premiere is just one of many events still to come with Top Gun: Maverick screening as part of the Cannes Official Selection on May 18, followed by a Royal Film Performance™ in London on May 19. Subsequently, the film will start landing in cinemas around the globe, releasing in North America and the UK on May 27.
To tide you over until the official release date, we’ll leave you with Cruise’s spectacular helicopter arrival followed by red carpet interviews with Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm and Joseph Kosinski.
